Sexual manipulation and romantic war games always make for an interesting story. Even if it is the fourth time around.”Cruel Intentions,” the new release from Columbia Pictures, is the most recent screen adaptation of the Pierre Laclos novel “Les Liaisons Dangereuses.”The film, updated by director and screenwriter Roger Kumble, is set in present-day New York City, instead of 18th century France. Kathryn Merteuil, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), and Sebastian Valmont, played by Ryan Phillippe (“54”), are two extremely wealthy and manipulative, teenage stepsiblings. The two are on summer break from their uppercrust private school and looking for a bit of excitement.Sebastian, a high school playboy, has grown tired of being able to have sex with whomever he wants and is looking for a challenge. Kathryn, recently dumped by her boyfriend, is out to ruin the reputation of Cecile Caldwell, (Selma Blair of “Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane”), the naive girl that Kathryn’s ex left her for.Kathryn offers Sebastian the challenge of deflowering Cecile and turning her into damaged goods. Sebastian doesn’t see this as any great feat, but he accepts. He also decides to go for a much greater conquest, the new headmaster’s daughter Annette Hargrove played by Reese Witherspoon (“Pleasantville”).Annette wrote an article for Seventeen magazine in which she discussed her virginity and her plans to stay a virgin until she marries her boyfriend.Kathryn thinks this achievement is out of Sebastian’s league and quickly offers him a more than friendly wager. If Kathryn wins, she gets Sebastian’s 1956 Jaguar. But if he succeeds, Kathryn has offered her body as reward, something that Sebastian has wanted since their parents married.And so starts the game.Everything goes smoothly until Sebastian finds himself falling in love with Annette, and no longer wants to be involved with the bet. Kathryn senses this and plays with Sebastian’s mind to keep him in the game.If Kumble’s intention was to create a teen-oriented, low-budget version of “Dangerous Liaisons,” the Oscar-winning film starring John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer, he succeeded.There are enough of today’s hottest, young stars in the film to certainly make it appealing to a younger audience. The cast is fine as far as acting goes, if you don’t go into it looking for award-winning performances. The relationship between Sebastian and Annette isn’t developed enough to make you care or believe that they are in love. It all just seems to happen too quickly. The only thing that did seem to work was the relationship between Sebastian and Kathryn. The two characters were so vicious that it made their scenes together the most enjoyable in the film. The film does tend to get a bit melodramatic at parts, but the script could have been more responsible for that than the actors. This does make the film weak though and, along with what seemed to be a rushed plotline to make the film under two hours long, it is by no means a cinematic masterpiece. It also suffers from a less than powerful ending, which really drags it down.So what you are left with is basically a nice date film that is entertaining overall. But if you want to see the film for its story and not “Buffy,” may I suggest renting the aforementioned Oscar-winning version.